Hi, I’ve been super curious about when people put heavy in their Callsign. I get it that it’s for large bodies aircraft but I realized some people don’t put heavy in their Callsign. Do they do it in real life? Also do domestic large bodies also put in heavy?
I actually have no idea. I never use it, I just keep it simple.
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I am not 100 percent sure but i think Heavy means if a plane is above the Maximum Landing weight (MLW)
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In my opinion, the aircraft with wide-body need to put on “heavy”, but in real world, you can hear this word rarely in frequency.
Some wide-body planes and B757(narrow body, but still need to be attributed the sort of ‘heavy’), according to the regulations, should say “heavy”, but it’s not compulsory. It is too time-wasting and inconvenient to tell the ATC every time, therefore many pilots ignore saying it.
In ZBAA, my hometown airport, heavy aircrafts are widespread, but I just hear “heavy” in a few times. Once in CA B77W. Once in CA A333. Airlines from foreign countries do the same, UA888, for example, calling himself as “United 888” without “heavy”.
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Happy 2nd year anniversary btw
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767 and up is a heavy on the radios, at least in the US. 757 is classed as a heavy for wake turbulence purposes but that’s on ATC’s end. Adding that “heavy” appendix is really only necessary in Approach/Departure airspace and below, center doesn’t care. Based on some research, it seems that outside of the United States, heavy is only required on initial contact with ATC. In the US, it’s required on every radio transmission.
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Hey, the heavy call sign depend of the weight of the aircraft. In Europe you don’t have to put it but in US is mandatory. See picture below.
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Thanks for the explanation!
a380s use super,widebodies like 777,a350,787,a330,767,747,a340 etc use heavy,everything else doesent use anything special,you can use it on domestic use as long as its a widebody or super,also the 757 isnt a heavy,its a narrowbody
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